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the hobbit

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los angeles film festival

Guillermo del Toro Would Sooner Burn Down Hollywood than Make Second 'Hobbit' Film

We know pretty much everyone in the world except a few drones at Defamer HQ can't seem to wait for noted genre waffler Guillermo del Toro's take on The Hobbit, previously reported as a pair of films he'd make over several years in New Zealand with producer Peter Jackson at his side. But last night at the LA Film Festival, where his Hellboy II will premiere Saturday night, del Toro kicked Middle-Earth off its axis by hinting that he wasn't beholden to a second film at all. Not only that, but he confessed an antisocial streak suggesting he might kill the project just to watch it bleed.

And while we think that fantastic idea is a second film in itself, read on to see why Tolkien geeks and studio suits alike may be shuddering this morning.

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10:15 AM on Fri Jun 27 2008
By STV
5,142 views, 14 comments

Latest by Cacafuego: @raincoaster: No, DAGON is a pretty tight adaptation of SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, just as I said, but set on the Coast of Spain, not Maine. The change in locale isn't that big a deal. They changed some of the story, more »

hopeless romantics

Guillermo Del Toro Accidentally Short-Lists Himself for 'Sleepless in Seattle' Remake

Never saying never might be the smart play for Guillermo Del Toro, who once went off so memorably on the Lord of the Rings franchise ("I was never into heroic fantasy. At all. I don't like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits — I've never been into that at all. I don't like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff") only to commit to directing the godforsaken Hobbit two-fer less than two years later. Alas, he's at it again this month in an interview with Complex Magazine, apparently setting himself up for his first stab at romantic comedy after he returns from New Zealand:

"No way. Sleepless in Seattle can go fuck itself," [Del Toro] said. "Monsters are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. I have no interest in everyday life, except through a twisted mirror."
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10:40 AM on Mon Jun 16 2008
By STV
1,283 views, 9 comments

Latest by Omelas: @Cacafuego: But what about P.T. Anderson? Brilliant *and* dreamy ... more »

short ends

Absolut Hunk Explains Why 'SATC' Tracks So Weakly On Mars

· Leave it to the unlikely arena of a TRL interview with Jason Lewis for a probing analysis of the lopsided gender-divide among SATC fans. (To Lewis's credit, he never once utters the phrase, "Cause they're, like, old and not hot.") [MTV]
· It's the Burn After Reading red band trailer! We think we just witnessed the Coens' greatest work since really-gay-sounding Anton Chigurh chilled us to the very core. [/Film]
· Celebrity Bogus-Rehab-Excuse Theater now continues with Steve Tyler's shocking admission that his recent stint was only to give his aching tootsies a chance to heal. Yeah, right. Maybe from the needle marks between their toes! [Reuters]
· All-purpose furry-footed fantasy creature James McAvoy is rumored to be favored for the lead in The Hobbit. [theonering.net]
· At celebtags.com, you look at a photo of a celebrity, then submit the first word or phrase that comes to your mind, then can glance at a tag cloud mapping what everyone else submitted. It sounds pointless, but it's kind of addictive. Look out for the billboard-sized word used to describe Sarah Jessica Parker. Meanies! [celeb tags]

6:25 PM on Thu May 29 2008
By Seth
1,902 views, 17 comments

Latest by raincoaster: @el smrtmnky: yaya! more »

In a blog post last month, before The Hobbit officially landed a director, Lord of the Rings veteran Sir Ian McKellen was more certain he would reprise his role as Gandalf than he was of his former castmates' sexualities. He was even surer in a recent interview with Empire magazine, in which the 68-year-old confirmed he was coming back for filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. "Yes, it's true," McKellen said. "I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it's not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf." And if McKellen's happy, then we're happy — especially when it means we don't have to further wrack our tired, beaten brains conjuring a suitable replacement. Thank God for small favors. [Reuters]

2 comments

middling earth

If 'The Hobbit' Must Be Made, We'd Rather See One of These Directors at the Helm

Our dissatisfaction at Friday's news that Guillermo del Toro would inherit the Hobbit reins from Peter Jackson met with a mix of scorn and curiosity over the weekend. "Pony up an alternative, Cochise," wrote a commenter. "Destroy those two GENIUSES and all we will be left with is Lucas and Spielberg. And that is not a world I wish to live in." Us neither! That said, if the Laws of Hollywood Franchises dictate that this goddamned movie must exist, we can think of at least five talented directors off the tops of our heads whom we'd prefer over del Toro, Jackson or any of the other usual fanboy fantasy suspects. Tell us your own ideal hires after the jump. More »

9:15 AM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By STV
3,673 views, 29 comments

Latest by kylo4: Can Woody Allen do heavy special effects movies or is that a joke? If he wrote it too we'd have a neurotic hobbit that is confused about his life and than have a secret love twist. Wait, I think I more »

middling earth

'Hobbit' Director Debate Ignores Critical Fact that 'Hobbit' is Rubbish

There's been much to-do over the last day about Peter Jackson's hiring of Guillermo del Toro to direct the two-part Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit. Among our favorite dissenting opinions belongs to Salon critic Andrew O'Hehir, who pulls out his Cannes '06 interview notebook to look up del Toro's sentiment at the time: "I was never into heroic fantasy. At all. I don't like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits — I've never been into that at all. I don't like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff." Our sister blog Gawker doesn't like del Toro's selection either, but we're optimistic this is a perfect match for everyone because The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien and Guillermo del Toro all fucking suck. Does it really matter which A-list fantasy/horror fanboy with $300 million of Warner Bros.' money and Jackson's imprimatur is going to spend four years jacking off behind a camera in New Zealand? It's going to be unwatchable. Not only that, but didn't Jackson make this movie three times already? Here's our exclusive script excerpt: "EXT. FOREST — DAY. Bilbo Baggins furrows his brow. Visual effects and soundtrack happen. INT. CASTLE — NIGHT. Ian McKellen cameo. More effects. EXT. FOREST — DAY. The end." It's a hit! [Salon]

4:50 PM on Fri Apr 25 2008
By STV
2,877 views, 17 comments

Latest by Homage: I too hate these fucking hobbit movies and Gollum De Torso or whatever the fuck his name is, and thus am happy to have found a community of like-minded individuals and/or Pitchfork readers. more »

short ends

Brad Pitt Getting Blown

· By the WIND, people. Get your minds out of the gutter! Bonus besteverness? Directed by David Fincher. [Creativity Magazine]
· Nerds rejoice! Guillermo del Toro has finally signed on to direct the long gestating LOTR prequel, The Hobbit. He will be spending the next four years (!!!) in New Zealand alternately shooting the film and polishing Peter Jackson's Oscars. [Variety]
· Speaking of hobbits, Elijah Wood's latest movie includes his first on-screen sex scene. Disturbingly, the scene involves spaghetti. No word yet if spaghetti sauce is also involved, but if it were, we hope they used Trader Joe's Organic Vodka Sauce. That's our fave. [Thighs Wide Shut]
· And since we've clearly got sex on the brain, here's video of a topless Mischa Barton straddling what looks to be the poor man's James Van Der Beek. The footage comes from some movie that, thanks to the magic of The Internets, you never have to actually see! [Egotastic]
· And lastly, Amy's Robot asks what could be the most important question of our times (or, at least, the last few hours): "Are you aware that Tina Fey's husband looks like this?" Actually, we did not. [Amy's Robot via Fimoculous]

5:40 PM on Thu Apr 24 2008
By Mark Graham
3,582 views, 4 comments

Latest by Benovite: That's her lawyer right? She's got a look on her face like 'yes believe it or not, one of the partners at a now defunct Queens law firm is in fact my husband.' Yikes! I love how David Fincher likes to more »

no sir

Ian McKellen Surfaces on Web with 'Hobbit' News and Not-Needed Castmate Sexuality Updates

Even though the Warner Bros. ax has yet to fall around New Line headquarters and the Tolkien family still wants its cash for The Lord of the Rings saga, Sir Ian McKellen took to his blog (We know! We're as stunned as you are) Wednesday to confirm he's "keeping [his] diary open for 2009" to reprise his role as Gandalf in The Hobbit. But that's only the half of McKellen's big gay update, which also includes hot nose-tweaking action and yawning confirmations of his LOTR co-stars' heterosexuality:
I did feel the need to tweak (New Line co-founder Michael Lynne's) nose once, when he seemed to be trying to diddle the cast of LOTR out of their well-earned share of the profits. It was at a party in Berlin after the opening of The Return of the King. I said "That's for all the trouble you've been causing!" I don't know who was more surprised: Michael, that I had taken his nose in my finger and thumb and twisted it gently, or me for having dared do it! At least one of us enjoyed it.
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9:00 AM on Thu Mar 27 2008
By STV
3,982 views, 5 comments

Latest by n/a: Excerpt from Ian McKellen's most recent blog - "Girl, I tell you - If that guy didn't shut his trap at the Wendy's the other nite I was gonna lose it!! LOL!!! Him talkin all fool crap. He said he knows "Madonna"! more »

Everybody's Suing Everybody Day continues! Accusing New Line of employing the kind of "Hollywood accounting" practices that could secret billions of dollars of Lord of the Rings revenues in suspicious budget lines like "Hair/Make-up Hobbitscaping Services," "Elijah Wood Eye-Desparkling Effects," and "Hide all profits here! Sssssh!," representatives from J.R.R. Tolkein's charitable trust and the author's heirs have filed suit against the studio, looking to be paid their claimed $150 million share of the LOTR bounty: "I think that it's going to be extremely interesting to see how New Line is going to explain to a jury that these films grossed $6 billion and yet by their calculations the creators' heirs are not going to get even a single penny." Given that New Line was rumored to have paid previous profit-seeker Peter Jackson a $40 million settlement to keep their two The Hobbit films on track, Tolkien's heirs can probably convince the company to comb through their allegedly cooked books to shake loose eight-figures' worth of make-nice money before things devolve into ugliness. [NY Times]

4 comments

saving the shire

New Line, MGM Hope To Appease 'Hobbit' Fans By Throwing Big Bag Of Money At Guillermo Del Toro

Having recently buried the $40 million hatchet with Peter Jackson to bring to an end that ugly feud over Lord of the Rings profits, New Line (and partner MGM) can now turn its attention to the crucial matter of finding a suitable director (Jackson, as you surely remember, is executive producing) for its two planned Hobbit movies, knowing that making a hasty, ill-considered choice could, as THR notes, "put billions of dollars at stake...and could turn off an audience that encompasses millions of passionate readers, Tolkien fans and obsessive geeks."

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9:46 AM on Mon Jan 28 2008
By Mark
1,589 views, 6 comments

Latest by NoWireHangers: Everyone knows you've gotta look like a hobbit to direct one. more »

Yesterday, there was much rejoicing in Fanboy Middle Earth following the announcement that director Peter Jackson would return to produce two The Hobbit movies for New Line after settling his dispute over the Lord of the Rings profits the filmmaker said the studio owed him. But how much money did it take for Jackson to rescind his onetime pledge to "feed the greedy [NL co-chairman] Bob Shaye's lifeless body to a hungry Gollum and toss what's left of his well-gnawed remains into the hottest volcano in Mordor before I begin to even think about doing another hairy-midget flick"? About $40 million, according to two people involved. [NY Times]

2 comments

In a Christmas miracle sure to have Lord of the Rings fans putting on their official Bilbo Baggins Furry Feet™ and dancing in unselfconscious joy around the replica Shires they've lovingly constructed in their basements, the once-feuding Peter Jackson and New Line have announced they've buried the hatchet (read: a big bag of LOTR settlment money is quietly being delivered to the director's New Zealand compound) and will move forward (with MGM) on two The Hobbit live-action films. Huzzah! Says Jackson about the dentente that will allow everyone to grow wealthier together without involving the courts: "I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line. 'The Lord of the Rings' is a legacy we proudly share with Bob and Michael, and together, we share that legacy with millions of loyal fans all over the world. We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth." [Var]

10 comments

trade roundup

Trade Round-Up: Hobbit War Rages On

· Want more Gail Berman stories? Of course you do. [Variety, THR]
· Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson politely responds to New Line co-chairman Bob Shaye's comments to Sci Fi Wire that Jackson (who is suing NL over LOTR money he says he says he's owed) will make The Hobbit or any other movie with his studio (and we paraphrase here) over Shaye's rotting, festering dead body. [Variety]
· Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton and Tilda Swinton are in negotiations to star in Charlie Kaufman's directing debut, Synecdoche, New York, a project whose script was memorably made sweet love to by the LAT back in September. [THR]
· Meryl Streep will star in the film adaptation of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia! [Variety]
· The FBI hosted a screenwriting workshop in Westwood to educate writers in the hopes that their counterterrorism efforts will be more accurately portrayed in future film and television productions. For example, scribes learned that Kiefer Sutherland's beheading of a suspect on 24 does not fall within the guidelines of the government's best vigilante justice practices. [THR]

12:18 PM on Thu Jan 11 2007
By Mark
219 views, 3 comments

Latest by Tuffy: I'm having problems getting my eyes to focus on the fourth item; could you please help me out? I can see Meryl Streep is attached to a project. I see it's a musical. It seems like it more »